double vision

part one: shoe box
a song that no one would expect you to love

Life is chock full of opportunities to ponder how others perceive us. Just this past Saturday night while hanging out with a group of acquaintances, weathered old friends, and a couple intimates, one particular person made an umbrella statement about my character and demeanor that sounded more like a version of myself I left behind many years ago.

For as long as I have been conscious, I have seen it happen again and again. Many approach me with caution. I know I am not easy. I don't squeeze down and vacuum pack down into a shippable box. I see it time and again. Hondas, Hybrids, and Hummers decked out in a variety of bumper stickers and other accoutrements like the automobile's required evidence of time spent in county. Most of these encounters leave me filled with disappointment, because getting a glance at one sticker, promotion, or quotation will often dictate the others, as if they were bought in a specialty box set. People too often base their personalities off of others. I don't mean others perspective, but others belief systems, others routines, others likes and dislikes. Are there really only a handful of genres of people, or are we too afraid to present the beautiful paradoxes, contradictions and hypocrisies that truly make up the human soul?

Perhaps when you first got wind that I was going to write thirty posts about songs of different distinctions and descriptions, you figured it would quiet down all of the usual meddling and find me shuffling through a bit of frivolity. Maybe this is too slippery a soapbox for this early in the week. Whatever the case, the idea of what others think has been on my mind lately, as I have had to swallow some pride and let some friends true colors dictate their exit from my life. So, what would they least expect me to be listening to as I walk in the other direction, not looking back? What shouldn't be on the iPod in such heavy rotation or what seems unlikely in the massive iTunes collection?

I suppose I could suggest an artist whose recent appearance on a friend's Facebook brought a few of us unlikely fans out of the woodwork. I actually first discovered her on a Celtic Christmas compilation I bought in 1995, which always feels appropriate to me since her voice and her music always seem to remind me of a chilly autumnal breeze across the open water or through a desolate field. A few of her more famous tracks are favorites of mine, as is this one: The Highwayman.

part two: kool thing
a song that surprises you that you like it

That said, who do I think I am? I have this great sense of where others may have gone awry with their tapping into the heart of me, but what hues do I feel reflect on the inside? What music would surprise my very soul if it were to fully awaken, seeing the full story thus far?

The kid in me would likely be surprised by all of the old school hip-hop that I love or the classic jazz that predates me by a generation. The adult in me, with all of my musical knowledge and ability to enjoy finer, harder to digest music like the more obtuse journeys of Tom Waits or the folk-less excursions of Joni Mitchell still loves disco, danceable pop, and other seemingly instant throw-away tracks.

As a consummate music fan, I have come to realize I can't turn my ears away from too many sounds. Obviously the pleasure chemicals respond more to certain combinations before others hit, but in context there's a time and place for a lot of the great music that exists.

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Dance Anthem of the 80s.